Am from Boston area and we say “Bawstin” though people from other parts of country seem to think we say “Baaah-stin”. And no, a Boston/New Eng accent isn’t the same as, er, ah, er, a Kennedy accent. Go not too far away in New England and there’s a bit of a twang; in W. Mass or VT, Bob isn’t “Bawb” but “Baaahb”. We pronounced “Route” (as in a highway) to rhyme with fruit while people in other parts of the country rhyme it with “doubt”. And we usually say Route rather than Highway.
Some people from midwest seem to have the voice go up at the end of a sentence...? Like they’re asking a question...?
Sometimes I have trouble understanding a Southern accent; no offense, y’all :) Maybe I just associate the Southern accent with Nancy Grace. There are some weird pronunciations;
a singer from a Washington DC/VA area band did a station ID for my college radio station and said our signal was “careening its way into your heume (home) at this very moment”. And hear how Garth Brooks pronounces “love”—”leeuve?” in the line “When we’re free to love anyone we choose” in “We Shall Be Free”.
Have taken trips to Pittsburgh the past few years and enjoy the yinzer accent an’ ‘at. Are yinz gonna watch the Stillers game on your caaaach at your haaase or go dahntahn? Don’t be a jagoff.” The accent comes out loud and clear on the
“Pittsburgh Dad” videos on youtube, and as I went to a Pirates game at PNC a few weeks back most of the guys around the bars nearby sure sounded like Pittsburgh Dad. What’s the section up a hill that you gotta take an incline to get to?
Mt Warshington, of course.
Dennis Miller is from the Pitt. area and on his audiobooks, etc. you can hear him say things like “what’s going ahn?”
Some TV/radio personalities try to lose their accents. Sean Hannity said when he, a Noo Yawker, got a radio job in Atlanta his NY accent stuck out like a sore thumb. Vermont’s commie senator, Bernie Sanders, is orig from NYC. I heard him on a radio ad: “Hoy! Oym Boynie Sandizz!”
I have a collection of baseball related music and other stuff and one bit was a radio show where Babe Ruth was talking to some kids and the Bronx, Brooklyn etc accents were pretty clear...
Accents can stand out—a few times someone sent me “airchecks” (tapes) of radio from his area, and there was a classic country show on WEVL from Memphis. The guy sounded more like me (or close to it) than someone from Tenn. I e-mailed him (Ken Young his name I think) and he said, “Oh, I’m from Rhode Island—I came down here to go to school and wound up staying.” Ah.